Scales and beauty
by chloemcg
Summary: (Request by Supertinafangirl6) When Herminia Layton gets two certain visitors from an alternate dimension, she becomes amazed. However what happens if she trades her skin for scales inadvertently?


**Disclaimer: I don't own any professor Layton characters especially not Professor Layton himself nor Herminia Layton (The Professor's gender bent counter part) since the latter was the idea of supertinagirl6.**

**I do own the dragon idea, though. **

**Scales or beauty.**

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><p>"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"<p>

Until this loud shrill screaming was heard, everything was quiet in this dimension. This place was an office which was all too familiar as a bright blue portal of white swirly amazingness formed in the ceiling.

The area looked a lot like a certain gentleman's office actually...

There was a desk with stacks upon stacks of files and tests waiting to be graded, there was a few fossils resting in a neat cluster beside the huge pile of paper and a little stool rested beneath the large mahogany desk with a rectangular surface.

There was even a little blue gem resting against the rough surface, glowing and twinkling away.

Otherwise the office looked...somewhat homely.

A sofa rested on the other side of the room just with a coffee table nestled opposite it and, not surprisingly, a little tea cup sat atop it and it looked like it was still a relatively new beverage; this made the identity of the owner of the office clearer than crystal.

Suddenly, out of the portal tumbled four people.

A little boy sporting a blue cap fell to the floor first with a dumbfounded expression on his pale face.

Then a man wearing a dark brown top hat landed on top of his apprentice. He was wearing a matching coat with a long collar with a orange jumper worn beneath it and he wore trousers matching the colouration of his jacket and top hat. This gent had very distinguishable features too.

Both gents were in a pile on the floor as they tried to get over the sudden shock.

"Ugh..." Luke groaned "why am I the one on the bottom?"

As soon as that rhetorical question was asked, Layton jumped off Luke and watched as the boy slowly climbed to his hands and knees while going through the painful process of getting himself into a standing position.

Professor Layton knelt down beside his young apprentice and asked him with his docile voice swimming with concern "Are you alright, Luke?"

Luke nodded while sending his mentor a sheepish grin.

Sighing to get over his sudden wave of nausea, the Professor stood up slowly and got a look at his surroundings. He was utterly perplexed.

(_W-Wait a moment...this is my office! But there is a difference about it that I cannot place a finger on...)_ Professor Layton thought to himself, putting a finger to his chin while he proceeded to stroke it in feather-light strokes.

This was most intriguing...

Before any more could be said, though, the door swung open and the Professor stared with wide eyes at this person who entered just now. He was shocked at what -or who- it was whom had only just entered the room.

It was a lady looking to be about his age. She had the exact same facial features as he did, she too wore a top hat but it was a little bit more humble and she wore a brown jacket without sleeves. The only differences about both the Professor and this woman were that they were opposite genders and the lady had long brown hair tied up into a ponytail beneath her hat.

"Ah!" Hershel Layton gasped, his hands flying to his cheeks.

"Ah!" Herminia Layton gasped, her hands also flying to her cheeks.

"Ah!" The pair in the top hats gasped in unison, both of them wearing the exact same shocked disbelieved expression on their rectangular faces.

"What!?" Luke exclaimed with a confused look on his face. He ran in between the two top hatted people and he looked towards the Layton he knew "Professor, what's going on here?!"

"Indeed, I would like to hear some explanation for the intrusion..." Herminia grumbled while scowling firmly at the two. She folded her arms across her chest expectantly as she raised a brow at the two.

The Professor sighed while composing himself. From what he could tell from these circumstances, it would seem that both Luke and himself had arrived at a different dimension where his XX chromosomes had been changed into the XY chromosomes, thus making him a girl in this world.

A gentleman never lies plus this was another version of HIM, so she could unpeel the truth anyway.

Grabbing the rim of his hat and tipping it politely at her, the Professor introduced himself "Pardon the intrusion, madam, but my young companion and I had accidentally been sent here." He bowed with a little grin "My name is Professor Hershel Layton."

Luke popped up next to him with a confused smile "I'm Luke Triton, pleased to meet you."

The woman seemed taken aback in shock. So this person was yet another Professor Layton, hmm? With a little sidekick, no less. This was most intriguing indeed and she couldn't help but return the introduction as she simmered down from her previous hostility. Besides, a lady must never shout to a gentleman unless its of utmost importance.

"Pleasure, my name is Herminia Layton."

The two Layton's stared at each other for what seemed like a century until Luke piped up again while quickly looking from the Professor then to the other Professor and then back to the Professor. This was getting strange and confusing!

"Wait. What? What? What? What? What? Wha-" Luke stammered "what" like a broken record player. He quickly shot glances of either top hatted people while he done this until somebody decided to do something in order to stop it:

Herminia came up to the boy wearing the blue cap, knelt down in front of him and gave him a slap across the face. Luke was instantly broken from his repetitive word spree and he looked at the female Professor Layton with shock.

Seeing the slight sadness shining in Luke's eyes, Herminia apologised "Sorry, little one, I had to get you to calm down."

Luke nodded. He understood. If the Professor was going through that, he would probably do the same...with his heart being consumed with guilt while he was at it. He breathed a deep sigh through his nostrils and he decided to listen to what was probably going on here.

After a quick quiz while sitting down on the sofa, the two Professor's eventually managed to deduce what had been happening here. It turned out that the Professor (male) and Luke had managed to be sucked from their respective dimension for a spell, but the reason for it was downright confusing. They didn't do anything wrong and plus...how was this even possible?

When the Professor and Luke both were at a loss of where to stay until they can go home.

Herminia smiled "Well you are more than welcome to stay here in my office until something happens, I suppose."

The Professor curtly nodded his head and gave his alter ego a warm smile, a warmth of gratitude flowing through his heart. He thanked her for her kindness but it was soon after that when things began to get out of whack there.

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><p>Night had fallen and Herminia was growing steadily more panicky as the time went by. She was pacing the room left and right with her having to drag the right side of her body across the room, her face breaking into a cold sweat as the moonlight shining from outside provided an effective spotlight for her while Hershel Layton and Luke kept to the shadows, worrying about the lady's constant pacing.<p>

She kept tugging at her hair with her teeth gritted, her eyes widening with paranoia while she muttered assurances to herself.

She couldn't distract herself no matter how hard she tried to but her symptoms kept on getting worse and worse.

Her murmurs rose in volume as the minutes ticked by and she could feel her joints hurt and begin to buckle out from beneath her, forcing her down to her hands and knees as she breathed heavily to try and calm her racing heart down.

It was then that the two gentlemen rushed to her side with concern written all over their faces.

"Ms. Layton! Are you alright?!" The Professor asked firmly while placing a comforting hand on her back.

"The...The...Pain!" She growled, squeezing her eyes shut for moments while her whole body became a shivering heap on the ground. She snapped her eyes open when she felt her muscles grew in size and her spinal cord curled in agony.

Looking at both the male version of herself and his little apprentice with tearful eyes, she yelled urgently as a lump began to form from her nose and her mouth, spouting forwards as if to give her a muzzle. "G-Get out of here, save yourselves!" Her voice was becoming growly and deep as she clawed at the floorboards.

The Professor opened his mouth to argue, to remind her that a gentleman never abandons a lady in trouble, but then he retracted his hand and stepped back in surprise upon seeing that her back was arching as well was expanding in size, tearing the clothes off of her slowly and steadily as she was now screaming so agonisingly loud that the whole of London could probably hear her.

Startled by the outburst, the Professor gathered Luke up into his arms and proceeded to run out of the room but watch what was happening through the doorway.

He was right to do this as Herminia grew larger and larger until she could barely fit inside the office.

Extra limbs what looked like wings spouted out from her back, her hands formed into giant paw-like appendages, her face had now been rounded and her mouth and nose completely turned into something of a muzzle. Her ears shifted into what appeared to have been deep orange reptilian frills. Her hair had completely disappeared! Her skin had even turned a very deep shade of russet and her skin had changed texture as if it had morphed into a totally different material.

The only thing remaining of her tattered clothes were her top hat and some cuffs for her sleeves.

Thankfully the moonlight being cast over her via the window had allowed both Luke and Hershel Layton to see what sort of changes she had gone through during that transformation.

Despite all that her eyes remained unchanged but she did look exceedingly sleepy.

The Professor cautiously approached what appeared to have been a dragoness with Luke following close behind. They watched as the recently-changed, winged beast sunk to the ground with her fore paws covering her eyes, she actually looked to have been...crying.

"Mrs...Mrs. Layton?" Luke called out softly, hoping to grab the dragon's attention.

This was rewarded with a purring growl that basically said "Leave me alone" as she had her back turned against the two gentlemen.

Sighing sympathetically, still a bit shaken up after witnessing such a gruesome transformation, Professor Layton approached her and went around to meet her face with a very small soothing smile. He didn't hesitate in taking the liberty in bending down and scooping up his alter ego's hat before holding it towards her face.

Herminia, removing her paws from her tearful eyes, looked at the hat for a moment before she gave a very inquisitive expression to her male dimensional counterpoint.

Why was he helping her? It wasn't like she was beautiful anymore...

The Professor read the dragoness' mind and explained to her "There now, my charming young doppleganger, you may think you don't look pretty anymore but that doesn't change who you are inside..."

The dragoness looked thoughtful for a moment. Was that true? Was she still beautiful in more ways than one?

Sighing through her nostrils, Herminia stretched her neck towards the right side of the room so she could look into the shattered mirror. She saw her reflection in the mirror and she screeched in alarm, scooting away from the mirror and making a lot of ruckus in the room as she was horrified of what she had just become.

The Professor sighed. That went well...not.

The female dragon ran around in panic despite the fact that the office could hardly contain her enlarged body. But then something happened:

She stopped.

Both Luke and the Professor were confused. What was happening to the female version of Professor Layton? Maybe she was contemplating an idea of sorts. It was a big possibility as she did look calm all of a sudden with her frills bristling against the cool night air.

As both the gentleman professor and his apprentice watched they had noticed that their body's were dematerialising. A golden glow surrounded the both of them as they looked at each other and then back to a pondering Herminia.

The thoughtful dragoness opened her pretty dot-like eyes when such an idea came to her mind.

Grinning with a newly found determination, she reached over and grabbed the sapphire resting on the surface of her desk before plopping it in her hat. The drake Heminia planted her top hat on her head and when she turned around to thank the two gentlemen she was startled to discover that they vanished into thin air.

She looked around. Where could they have gone?

Maybe they just went home...if that were the case then she simply managed to close her eyes again and hold her head up towards the skies with a little smile forming on her muzzle.

_(...Thank you for helping me, Hershel Layton,...you too, Luke.)_

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><p><strong>AN: Ta-Da! This is my very first request and I'm proud of it. **

**The basic idea belongs to Supertinagirl6 and she's an amazing writer! Seriously have a look at her artwork and stories, they are awesome! **

**If she reads this then I wouldn't mind at all if she done some artwork for this. Not at all. :)**

**Actually I think it would be cool. **

**Anyways please review this and if you want to look at the main story this is a spin-off from then look at "Legend of the dragon sapphire" written by yours truly.**

**Thanks, guys! **

**-Chloemcg**


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